6-Day Forecast

Today

Increasing clouds, cold, snow or snow and sleet arrives at the end of the day, highs near 40 degrees

Tonight

Cloudy, cold, snow or snow and sleet early this evening likely mixing with freezing rain late, lows in the lower 30’s

Saturday

Mixed precipitation changes to plain rain except possibly in the far northern and western suburbs where freezing can still occur, cold, total snow and ice accumulations in the 1-3 inch range are likely in the northern and western suburbs of the District, lesser amounts in the District and points south and east, upper 30’s

Saturday Night

Becoming partly cloudy, cold, mid-to-upper 20’s

Sunday

Partly sunny, cold, mid-to-upper 30’s; snow likely at night

Monday

Mostly cloudy, snow likely, cold, mid 30’s

Tuesday

Mostly sunny, very cold, upper 20’s

Wednesday

Partly sunny, very cold, upper 20’s

Discussion

A significant coastal storm will move from the Virginia coastline early tomorrow to just east of the Massachusetts coastline by Saturday night and the result will be some accumulating snow and ice in the I-95 corridor. This storm will undergo rapid intensification between tonight and tomorrow night as it treks northeastward just off the east coast. One important limiting factor for significant snow from this storm in the Mid-Atlantic region is the fact that there will be no Arctic air mass in place ahead of the system and no strong high pressure system will be located to the north during the event acting as an all-important cold air source. Nonetheless, despite a likely mixture of precipitation during this event, total snow and ice accumulations in the 1-3 inch range are likely in the northern and western suburbs of the District given the expected storm track and rapid intensification which can "generate" its own cold air. The main thumping of snow from this storm will come on its front end later this evening.

Another system will drop southeastward across the Great Lakes region late Sunday in much the same manner as some of the recent “clippers”. This system, however, has more potential that those recent ones as it will intensify in the Mid-Atlantic region on Monday, tap into some Atlantic Ocean moisture, and will have a cold air mass in place as it arrives. As a result, snow is likely to be the dominate precipitation type with this system on Sunday night and Monday and several inches of snow accumulation is possible from DC-to-Philly-to-NYC. There is the strong likelihood that the Monday morning commute will be significantly disrupted by this early week snow event. Brutal cold air follows this second system and lows by Wednesday morning will likely reach the single digits.